ZUBENATHI JIZANA
The age-old tradition of blikskud (the collection of small change in a can from bystanders) at RAG was removed from the procession this year.
For many of those that have attended the RAG Procession in the past, it came as a shock to see the residences’ first years not carrying any cans and asking for small change. This year, donations to RAG were made by SMSing the name of your favourite res to a given number. The SMS donated R5 of which 60% went to Vodacom and 40% to RAG.
According to Dr Rina Wilken, UP coordinator of special programmes (which includes assisting the RAG committee), the initiative to change the method of collecting money at the RAG Procession followed a suggestion from personnel in UP’s finance department. Wilken said that the RAG committee did not have much say in the initiative and were not informed timeously about the decision in order to discuss it.
The reason for the change to electronic donations was to limit the physical money or the “cash in hand” handled by students and RAG. The initiative was suggested to impose more control over the process of donation. According to Dr Wilken, there have been instances in the past where the money collected by the different residences was not all used for or given over to RAG. The change to SMS also assisted in the auditing of the collected funds and increased accountability as many risks were eliminated.
Dr Wilken assured Perdeby that steps were taken to inform the residences and day houses about the change but said that more could have been done to inform the general public and Tuks students. But the time it took to make the decision to change to the SMS system did not allow TuksRAG the opportunity to market or communicate the change to the public.
However, Dr Wilken sees the initiative as something that could work well in the future considering that the electronic trend is popular and regarded as safer and more convenient. Given enough time, the SMS donation system could contribute well to the aim of RAG which is to donate to charity, commented Dr Wilken.
RAG failed to comment.
